China

Taiwan

Military & Security

Politics

Ko Wen-je, founder and former chair of the Taiwan People's Party, or TPP, was sentenced to 17 years in prison and deprived of his civil rights for six years for bribery charges related to his time as Taipei mayor from 2018 to 2022, Focus Taiwan reported on March 26.

Taiwan: Third Party Founder's Prison Sentence Could Boost President Lai, Incense China

United States

Australia

South Korea

Vietnam

Economics

On March 25, Australia's Lynas Rare Earths and South Korea's LS Eco Energy signed a framework agreement to build a rare earth metallization facility in Vietnam, with output to feed downstream magnet production in the United States, Nikkei Asia reported the next day.

Asia-Pacific, U.S.: Newly Announced Metalization Plant Forwards Non-China Rare Earth Supply Chain

U.S.-China Relations

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on March 25 that U.S. President Donald Trump's summit in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping, originally scheduled for March 31 to April 2, had been rescheduled to May 14-15.

U.S., China: Trump-Xi Summit Rescheduled for May, Reciprocal U.S. Visit Pitched

Mexico

China announced that it had the right to retaliate against Mexico's barriers to Chinese goods and investments, although it has not announced any countermeasures, El Economista reported on March 25.

Mexico, China: Beijing Says It Has the Right To Retaliate Against Mexico Over Tariffs

Kenya

Seychelles

South Africa

Chinese Vice President Han Zheng is conducting an Africa tour through Kenya, South Africa and the Seychelles during which he will meet his local counterparts through March 30, Radio France Internationale reported on March 23.

Africa: Chinese Vice President Tours Kenya, South Africa, Seychelles

Environment, Science & Technology

Science & Technology

NASA announced on March 24 that it plans to spend $20 billion over the next seven years to develop a lunar base on the surface of the moon and will pause plans to build the Gateway space station that would have orbited the moon and served as a ferrying point for manned missions to the lunar surface.

U.S.: NASA Unveils New $20B Spending Plan, Including Development of Lunar Base 

Philippines

Energy

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said energy supply risks stemming from the war in the Middle East could spur renewed discussions with China on joint energy development in the South China Sea, Bloomberg reported on March 24.

Philippines, China: Energy Pressures Drive Talks, Temporary Calm in the South China Sea

Police in Wuhan arrested seven people and gave administrative penalties to four companies amid a crackdown on trafficking in nationally controlled fentanyl precursors, China's official outlet Xinhua reported on March 19.

China, U.S.: Fentanyl Arrests Will Help Beijing Avoid Higher U.S. Tariffs

Assessments

Iran

Israel

Japan

Ukraine

A large plume of smoke rises March 7 over Tehran after explosions were reported in the Iranian capital during the night.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

U.S.-Iran Relations

A look at what the coming week will bring -- and a list of recommended RANE articles from the week that was.

The Weekly Rundown: The Iran War Continues, Takaichi Meets With Trump

North Korea

Russia

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during the Ninth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Feb. 22, 2026. 

Kim Jong Un's latest directives suggest a willingness to pursue high-level negotiations with the United States and China in pursuit of critical economic concessions.

North Korea's Party Congress Points to Diplomatic Window of Opportunity

Chile

Colombia

Lebanon

Germany

Greece

France

United Kingdom

Cyprus

Netherlands

Spain

Italy

Plumes of smoke rise following reported explosions in Tehran on March 2, 2026, after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28 killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top military leaders, prompting a new wave of Iranian retaliatory missile attacks across the region. 

The Weekly Rundown: War in the Middle East, U.S.-China Trade Talks

Canada

India

The Tehran skyline on Dec. 30, 2025. On March 2, U.S. and Iranian negotiators will meet in Vienna, Austria, to begin technical talks on a nuclear deal.

The Weekly Rundown: The Conflict in the Middle East, Merz meets Trump 

A video interview of Taiwanese President William Lai plays onstage during The New York Times DealBook Summit 2025 at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Dec. 3, 2025, in New York City.

President Lai's political disputes with the legislature are unlikely to ease anytime soon, which could disrupt U.S. trade and arms deals and/or jeopardize future opportunities for diplomatic engagement with China.

Taiwan's Political Dysfunction Goes Global

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press Feb. 2 in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump will deliver the annual State of the Union address to Congress on Feb. 24.

The Weekly Rundown: Trump Threatens Iran, Pledges To Reimpose Tariffs on Different Grounds

Snapshots

Europe

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a press briefing at the White House on Feb. 20, 2026, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Trump's use of emergency powers to implement international trade tariffs.

Global Trade

The Trump administration will use other trade authorities to replace many of the IEEPA tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court, meaning U.S. trading partners will remain incentivized to engage on trade matters.

What the Supreme Court Tariff Ruling Means for Trump and U.S. Trading Partners

Russian soldiers wear chemical protection suits as they stand next to a military fueler on the base of a prime mover of Russian Topol intercontinental ballistic missile during a training session at the Serpukhov's military missile forces research institute some 100km outside Moscow on April 6, 2010.

Over time, this will intensify an ongoing buildup of nuclear capabilities across the globe and make crises involving nuclear powers more unpredictable and prone to miscalculations. 


Implications of the Last Major U.S.-Russian Nuclear Arms Control Agreement's Expiration

Zhang Youxia, senior vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission (CMC), attends the opening of the fourth plenary session of the National People's Congress on March 11, 2023, in Beijing, China. 

The removal of Xi's closest military ally signals an acceleration of his push to eliminate internal threats and heightens uncertainty about the president's decision-making on Taiwan, potentially raising the risk of future conflict.

China's High-Level Military Purge Raises Risk of a Miscalculation on Taiwan

Palestinian Territories

Egyptian trucks and heavy machinery on Oct. 26, 2025, on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip.

Israel-Hamas Conflict

The Weekly Rundown: A Gaza Border Reopening, EU Leaders Visit India

Columns

On Geopolitics

U.S. protectionism has dramatically weakened the rules-based, multilateral trade regime established after World War II, driving governments to increasingly view trade through a national security lens rather than purely an economic one.

The Geopolitics of Trade: Conclusion

Venezuela

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (right) and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil (left) attend a meeting in Beijing on May 12, 2025.

U.S. pressure on the new Venezuelan government will briefly cool China's engagement in Latin America and could renew trade tensions with Washington, though Maduro's removal is unlikely to affect China's calculus regarding Taiwan.

Assessing China's Response to the U.S. Capture of Venezuela's Maduro

<p>China is situated on the eastern third of the Eurasian landmass, between Russia, mainland Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia. Its more than 9,000 mile-long coastline abuts the Yellow, East and South China Seas. China is a country of deep geographic divisions. Most fundamental is the split between its fertile eastern lowlands and the arid, sparsely populated highlands that enclose the lowlands like a shell. More than a billion people live in the ethnic Han Chinese core, making it one of the most densely populated places on Earth. Traditionally, threats to China&#39;s Han core originated in the borderlands. To guard against overland invasion, successive Chinese rulers have sought to push the Core&#39;s borders outward &mdash;integrating these highlands as strategic &quot;buffer&quot; zones. These zones form a shield, protecting and containing the core. To be secure, China must control the buffer regions. But maintaining control of the regions, in turn, requires a strong and united core. And that means overcoming immense internal divisions &mdash; not only between northern and southern regions orbiting the Yellow and Yangtze rivers, but also between smaller regional units, each with their own geography, history, dialect and interests. Chinese history is defined by cycles of unity and fragmentation, from periods when a strong Han core captures and holds the surrounding buffers to those when a weak core breaks into its constituent parts, loses internal coherence and cedes control of the borderlands. This pattern, rooted in China&#39;s geography, has played out with remarkable consistency. By comparison, China&#39;s maritime interests have remained mostly limited to coastal waters. Today, however, growing international trade and rising Chinese reliance on overseas resources threaten to alter the pattern, adding a new maritime dimension to the struggle for buffer space &mdash; and potentially upending the long-standing dynamics of China&#39;s geographic challenge.</p>

SITUATION REPORTS

Taiwan: Third Party Founder's Prison Sentence Could Boost President Lai, Incense China

Asia-Pacific, U.S.: Newly Announced Metalization Plant Forwards Non-China Rare Earth Supply Chain

U.S., China: Trump-Xi Summit Rescheduled for May, Reciprocal U.S. Visit Pitched

Mexico, China: Beijing Says It Has the Right To Retaliate Against Mexico Over Tariffs

Africa: Chinese Vice President Tours Kenya, South Africa, Seychelles

U.S.: NASA Unveils New $20B Spending Plan, Including Development of Lunar Base

Philippines, China: Energy Pressures Drive Talks, Temporary Calm in the South China Sea

China, U.S.: Fentanyl Arrests Will Help Beijing Avoid Higher U.S. Tariffs

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